Piper's 'Call Girl' sets US ratings record

The launch of Billie Piper's Secret Diary Of A Call Girl has scored a ratings record for Showtime in the US.

The racy drama - based on the Belle du Jour novels - premiered to 949,000 viewers on Monday night. The figure is the largest on record for a new series opener on the cable network, exceeding 936,000 for The L Word in 2004.

Showtime also set its highest audience ever of 1.3m with the first in the fourth season of the drug-themed comedy Weeds. The previous record of 1.2m was set by an episode of Dexter last year.

Call Girl drew record ratings for ITV2 when it began in the autumn and has already been picked up for a third run, to air next year.